Julian Sancton is the author of Neptune’s Fortune: The Billion-Dollar Shipwreck and the Ghosts of the Spanish Empire (Crown).

The book is the true story of a Spanish galleon that sunk off the coast of Colombia with over $1 billion in gold and silver—and one man’s obsessive quest to find it.

A thrilling adventure, Neptune’s Fortune takes readers from battles on the high seas to the sun-soaked shores that nurtured history’s most notorious treasure hunters.

Julian Sancton is the New York Times bestselling author of Madhouse at the End of the Earth and a senior features editor at The Hollywood Reporter. His work has appeared in Vanity Fair, National Geographic, Esquire, The New Yorker, and GQ, among other publications. He has reported from every continent, including Antarctica, and lives in Larchmont, New York.

“… technically complex [and] nail-biting . . . [Neptune’s Fortune] is a rollicking historical mystery and a beguiling human drama rolled into one.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review

“… researched meticulously and told exceptionally well.”—Hampton Sides, New York Times bestselling author of The Wide Wide Sea

Ken Waldman has drawn on 39 years as an Alaska resident to produce poems, stories, and fiddle tunes that combine into a performance that is uniquely his.

For this Thacker appearance he will perform fiddle tunes, poetry and discuss his wide-ranging travels.

His novel Now Entering Alaska Time is available from Ridgeway Press and the author’s website https://www.kenwaldman.com/home.

On Friday, Feb. 6, Waldman will host an event at the Getrude C. Ford Center, “Ken Waldman & The Wild Ones: An Interdisciplinary Arts Extravaganza for Elementary and Middle School with Music, Poetry and Surprises.”

“He brings his instruments, a few fellow musicians, and his poems about surviving a plane crash (locals once called him “a walking dead man”), watching grizzlies feed in a garbage dump, and other adventures in the forty-ninth state.” — The New Yorker

Nubia Yasin is a poet, filmmaker, and fine artist based in Memphis, Tennessee. She anchors her work around Black femininity, Black family structures, Black children, and the Cult of True Womanhood.

Her sound, crafted in partnership with IMAKEMADBEATS (acclaimed underground hip hop producer, CEO of UNAPOLOGETIC) is a unique blend of eclectic influences, pulling from such disparate artists as Sade and Morrissey.

Her releases include the single, Slightly Sacred.

She can also be heard on Fine Line (with fellow Memphian Rachel Maxann) from the album, Stuntarious, Vol. 5.

Much of Yasin’s work is autobiographical. In addition to her personal practice, Nubia Yasin serves as Chief Storyteller of TONE, a Memphis based Black Fine Arts non-profit dedicated to uplifting the Black community through the Black artist.